Dynamic Search Ads: When Google Writes the Headline From Your Site

Everything below comes from Google's own pages: About Dynamic Search Ads, About targets for Dynamic Search Ads, Create a Dynamic Search Ad and the Google Ads blog post We're upgrading Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max. Menus move from time to time, and this feature is in the middle of a change, so check the dates below against your own account.

DSA and AI Max: the timeline

Start here, because it changes what you should build. On 15 April 2026 Google announced that AI Max for Search campaigns was leaving beta and that campaigns using Dynamic Search Ads would be upgraded to AI Max automatically from September 2026. Google later extended that date for DSA. Its help pages now say: starting in February 2027, campaigns using Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) will automatically be upgraded to AI Max. The September 2026 date still applies to campaigns using automatically created assets and the campaign-level broad match setting.

According to the blog post, when the upgrade runs, campaigns with dynamic ad groups move to standard ad groups with their settings and data carried over, and all three AI Max features are switched on: search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion, with your existing URL controls kept. The original announcement also said that once automatic upgrades begin, new DSA campaigns can no longer be created in Google Ads, Google Ads Editor or the API. Google recommends upgrading yourself before then so you choose the setup rather than inherit it.

If you run DSA today and want evidence first, Google describes two ways to test AI Max against it with Google Ads experiments. In a custom experiment, open the Dynamic Search Ads settings in the draft campaign and select Upgrade campaign. Or use the AI Max experiment template, with two limits: a campaign made up entirely of dynamic ad groups cannot use the template, and in a mixed campaign the template upgrades only the standard ad groups while the dynamic ones stay dynamic.

The rest of this guide explains DSA as it works now. The same ideas, letting your site content steer targeting and copy, carry into AI Max and Performance Max, which can also use page feeds.

How Dynamic Search Ads work

A normal Search campaign starts from keywords you choose. DSA starts from your website. Google says: When someone searches on Google with terms closely related to the titles and frequently used phrases on your website, Google Ads will use these titles and phrases to select a landing page from your website and generate a clear, relevant headline for your ad. Its example is a hotel chain whose ad for luxury hotel New York shows the headline Luxury hotel - NYC and lands on the page about its New York hotels.

DSA lives inside a Search campaign as a dynamic ad group. You turn on the Dynamic Search Ads setting in the campaign settings, enter your domain and the site's language, then create a dynamic ad group and choose its targets. Google suggests a campaign per language if your site has pages in several languages, and waiting at least two days after enabling a new domain before judging results. In the ad itself you enter only the description text; the headline, final URL and display URL are generated, and the display URL is simply your domain.

Google's own case for DSA is that keyword accounts miss searches, are slow to add ads for new products and drift out of sync with what the site actually offers. DSA fills those gaps from the site itself.

How the headline is built

Google says the most important signal for the headline is the HTML title of your page. Its crawler reads your pages for text that suits a headline, and Google may change it a little, for example capitalization or unsupported characters, to meet its editorial policies. It does not promise in advance which headline will show.

Two consequences follow. First, page titles become ad copy, so Google recommends titles that follow its editorial rules, have a clear call to action and stay within 60 or 90 characters. Second, Google states that you are responsible for the final text in your ad, which is why the choice of target pages matters. A page with a vague or outdated title can produce a vague or outdated ad. Good titles help your organic results too; see the on-page section of our small business SEO basics.

One old feature to drop: ad customizers in DSA descriptions stopped serving on 31 May 2024 unless they had a default value. Use plain description text, and use responsive search ads where you need customizers.

Dynamic ad targets

Targets decide which pages DSA may use. Google lists eight types:

• Landing pages from your standard ad groups: every page your keyword ads already send people to. Google recommends this for advertisers new to DSA, and it works only if those ad groups have eligible landing pages.
• URL equals: one specific page. Simple and controlled, but Google warns it can limit reach. URLs with tracking parameters may be treated as different links.
• URL contains: pages whose URL holds a token, such as services. A token is separated by characters such as / - : ? + or &, so services matches /services-menu/ but not /servicesmenu/.
• Custom label: groups of URLs you labelled in a page feed (next section).
• All webpages: every page Google's crawlers have found on your domain. Google advises adding exclusions for pages you never want ads to reach.
• Page title: pages whose title contains certain words. Google cautions that this can be prone to error.
• Page content: pages that contain words you specify.
• Categories: sets of pages Google groups by theme from your site's content. They can take up to 24 hours to appear after you set up the ad group, and only appear for domains where Google can generate them.

If you bid manually, you can set different bids on different targets, which is how you favour a high-value section of the site. With automated bidding, Google sets them; our guide to budgets and bidding covers that choice.

Page feeds and custom labels

A page feed is a spreadsheet of the exact URLs you want to use, uploaded under Tools, then Business data. It needs a Page URL column with one URL per row, and a Custom label column; Google's example labels for a hotel site are FOUR_STAR and POPULAR_DESTINATION. Each URL can carry up to 20 labels, separated by semicolons, and an account can hold up to 100 page feeds.

Google's rules for the URLs: no duplicates (the upload fails), no tracking parameters, final URLs instead of redirects, no cross-domain redirects (those get disapproved) and no pages Google's AdsBot cannot crawl. A new or changed feed takes on average 2 to 14 days to be crawled, depending on its size.

In the campaign's Dynamic Search Ads settings you then choose the source: URLs from your page feed only, or URLs from both Google's index of your site and your feed. Feed only gives the tightest control; even an All webpages target then serves only the pages in the feed.

Keeping pages and searches out

DSA needs fences. Google's exclusions page describes two kinds:

• Negative dynamic ad targets stop pages from being used. You find them under Audiences, keywords and content, then Dynamic ad targets, on the Negative dynamic ad targets tab, for a campaign or an ad group. Exclude exact URLs (case counts: www.Example.com is a different URL from www.example.com) or set rules by page content, page title or URL. Google strongly recommends excluding pages that contain words like sold out or unavailable.
• Negative keywords stop searches. DSA has no keywords, but negatives still apply, at ad group or campaign level or through a shared list.

Good candidates for page exclusions are login and account pages, careers, blog posts you would not pay to promote, legal pages and anything temporary. How to build a sensible negative keyword list is covered in our search terms and negative keywords guide.

DSA next to your keyword ads

Google's Ad Rank page for DSA says dynamic ads are ranked like keyword ads: bid, ad quality at auction time, Ad Rank thresholds, the context of the search and the expected impact of assets. There is no Quality Score to read for a dynamic ad target, though.

When a search exactly matches a keyword you target in the same account (or a linked account of yours), the keyword ad can show instead of the dynamic one. When the search is only a broad or phrase match to your keyword, the dynamic ad can win if its Ad Rank is higher. For selection, Google treats DSA like a keyword that does not exactly match the search. If two dynamic targets in the same campaign could serve a search, the most relevant landing page is used; targets in different campaigns compete in the auction. Sitelinks and other assets work with DSA as with any Search ad.

Reading the search terms report

The DSA search terms report sits under Search terms in the Campaigns menu. Besides the search terms, it shows the headlines generated and the landing pages used, reported as the final URL after redirects. Views include search terms, landing pages, and both together.

From there you can tick a poor search and choose Add as negative keyword, or tick a poor page and choose Add as negative URL. Google also suggests the opposite move: when one page performs well, give it its own URL equals target with a higher bid. With conversion tracking in place, sort by conversions to see which pages bring results; without it, you are judging by clicks and cost alone.

When DSA fits, and when it does not

Google describes DSA as best for advertisers with a well-developed website or a large inventory, and for filling gaps around keyword campaigns. It works best on sites with well-written HTML titles and clear text content.

Google says it is not recommended if your site changes rapidly, for example with daily deals, and does not work well on sites that are mostly images or Flash, or where most content sits behind a login. Pages built entirely by scripts can also be hard for Google to read. If ads are disapproved as Destination not working, check that robots.txt does not block AdsBot-Google and that pages return 200 rather than 403 or 404; Google suggests Search Console to check crawling.

For a small service business with a dozen pages, a well-built keyword campaign is usually easier to control; our Google Ads basics guide starts there. And given the February 2027 upgrade, a new build today is better planned as a standard Search campaign with or without AI Max than as a fresh DSA setup.

Frequently asked questions

What are Dynamic Search Ads?

They are Google Search ads without keywords. Google matches searches to pages on your website, generates the headline mainly from the page's HTML title, sends the click to that page, and you write only the description text.

Are Dynamic Search Ads being discontinued?

Google says that starting in February 2027 campaigns using Dynamic Search Ads will automatically be upgraded to AI Max, and dynamic ad groups move to standard ad groups with settings and data carried over. Google recommends upgrading yourself before then.

Can I choose which pages Dynamic Search Ads use?

Yes. Dynamic ad targets limit DSA to categories, URLs, page titles, page content or a page feed, and negative dynamic ad targets keep pages out. Google strongly recommends excluding pages that say sold out or unavailable.

Do negative keywords work with Dynamic Search Ads?

Yes. DSA does not use keywords, but negative keywords still stop your ads from showing on searches you exclude, at ad group or campaign level or through a negative keyword list.

Will Dynamic Search Ads compete with my keyword ads?

When a search exactly matches a keyword in the same account, the keyword ad can show instead. If the search is only a broad or phrase match, the dynamic ad can show when its Ad Rank is higher.

DSA writes ads from your pages, so the pages need to be clear. See our website development service and all our services, or email [email protected].